Hiker Hunger doesn’t really begin until about four weeks in. Before that, I ate like I did on days I did long training runs (say, 20 miles and up): I could eat a lot, but usually only for one meal, and then I’d feel more than plenty full.

Hiker Hunger is unlike anything you’ve ever experienced before. It’s a nearly-constant desire for food, and you can eat so much more than ever before. You’ll eat an enormous meal, and, at the end of it, feel merely “pleasantly full” rather than the “oh my god, I wish I hadn’t eaten that” that it otherwise would cause. Further, if you eat 1,800 calories at lunch at 12:30 PM…you’ll be hungry again for another huge meal by 6:00 PM, rather than wanting just a small snack (or dessert, if you’re like me).

Ask any PCT hiker where they are, and you’ll probably get an answer back immediately, accurate to within ten miles — “Oh, about mile 1270 or so”. (Ten miles is just a morning or afternoon of hiking, so that’s actually pretty accurate, to us.)

But ask any PCT hiker where they actually are, and the hilarious part is …

One of the weirder aspects of hiking in the southern Sierra: about a dozen times per day, you’ll hear a really loud noise, look up…and, if the sky is clear and you look in the right direction, see a pair of F–16s blazing past really, really fast. (More often, though, you look up and see nothing at all, as they’re either too fast for you or behind a cloud.)

They fly low enough that sometimes they’ll be on the other side of a mountain, and all you hear is the roar of jets. Apparently there’s a military base near here that sends its pilots flying up here for training. I don’t know if that’s for a strategic reason or just because it’s really beautiful…but, either way, it’s definitely one of the odder things to experience out here.